9. ZYDZI: The Jewish Community
In the centuries preceding the Partitions, the Polish-Lithuanian Republic had
progressively attracted to itself the largest Jewish community in Europe. The
Jewish estate had multiplied faster than any other social group. The great cata-
strophes of Chmielnicki's Rebellion and of the Massacre of Human proved to
be only temporary setbacks. From some 200,000 at the time of the Republic's
formation in 1569, the total number of Jews had increased to almost 800,000 at
the moment of the Republic's demise. During the nineteenth century, the lands
of partitioned Poland harboured the main reservoir of Jewish manpower and
intellectual dynamism in the world, and, until the great Exodus to America
reached its height, contained four-fifths of world Jewry. In the words of
Responsa No. 73, of the great Cracovian rabbi Moses Isserles 'Remuh'
(1510-72): 'It is better to live on dry bread, but in peace, in Poland.' Similarly,
in one of the puns so beloved of Hebrew scholars, Polin (Poland) stood for 'pob-
lin: Here, one rests'.^1
As a result of changing political conditions, the term 'Polish Jew' possessed
several different connotations. In its original sense, it simply referred to the
Jewish population of the former Polish state, and included people who came to
think of themselves not as 'Polish' but as 'Russian', 'Galician', or even 'German'
Jews. In later times, it referred either to Jewish citizens of the reborn Polish
Republics, or else to that sector of East European Jewry which was assimilated
into Polish language and culture.
In the course of the nineteenth century, the Jewish community was subjected
to the forces of radical change which beset all remnants of the defunct Republic.
In many ways, its transformation followed a path parallel to that of the wider
Polish community. At the outset, its fortunes centred on the system of separate
estates of the realm, whose ancient legal privileges were now set to be destroyed.
At the end, it was a modern nation united only by the bonds of common origins
and of common identity. As with many other social groups, the old order had to
be dismantled before the new one could be assembled. In the process, many ele-
ments of the old order were lost forever. Confusion and insecurity were
increased, not diminished. As the peasants, too, were to find, emancipation was
not necessarily equivalent to liberation.
Jewish Emancipation proceeded at a different pace,'and by different
methods, in each of the three Partitions. In the immediate aftermath of 1773,